5 reasons Tottenham Hotspur are now bigger than Arsenal

Can Spurs topple the mighty Arsenal as the best club of North London?

The tide looks to be changing in favour of Tottenham in the past few years

Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal, two clubs that have fought tooth and nail to gain supremacy in English football and North London. The North London derby has been a fierce and closely fought derby in English football for over a century, and the rivalry between the two is as passionate as it was in the 1900s.

But, for a long time, the Gunners have reigned supreme in head-to-head encounters – winning 78 games in all competitions to Spurs’ 55 wins, and they have also been successful of the two in trophies won.

Arsenal have won 13 league titles and are the third successful club in England, while their neighbours have a paltry two English league titles, who have forever lived in the shadow of the Gunners.

But, the tide looks to be changing in favour of Tottenham in the past few years after a few encouraging seasons. Could Spurs topple the mighty Arsenal as the best club of North London? Here are a few reasons why they might:

#5 Bigger and better new stadium

Spurs’ new stadium is set to be operational from 2018

White Hart Lane, which has been the home of Tottenham for over a century is soon to be replaced with a new stadium that is under construction. In 2007, the Spurs board announced plans of upgrading their current stadium or moving to a new stadium with the Lane accommodating only 36,000 spectators which pales in comparison to the stadium capacity of Arsenal’s Emirates stadium and Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium.

Spurs were in intense negotiations to take over the Olympic Stadium which was built for the 2012 London Olympics, but eventually became the home ground of Premier League rivals, West Ham United.

The new Tottenham stadium being built near White Hart Lane boasts of several facilities which will put even the best stadiums in the world to shame. The 61,000-seater stadium which will be operational in 2018 will include a hotel, supermarkets, housing, and even a school and a college! One of the standout features of the new stadium is the 17,000-seater single tier stand which takes inspiration from Borussia Dortmund's Signal Iduna Park and Liverpool’s Anfield stadium.

The designers have gone down to the minutest of details to make the new home the best atmosphere in England by designing it like a concert hall. In an interview to GQ, the designers of the stadium spoke of the research that they have put into designing the stadium: “The studies we’ve done with them shows when you start breaking up acoustics everyone gets out of sync, singing 'C’mon you Spurs' or whatever the song is, and so they stop singing.

“So once they create acoustics where they don’t break down, the reverberation times are quicker, they last longer, they get louder, and the louder people get, the louder people around them get, and so the atmosphere and the noise builds.”